In Massachusetts, statistics blur gun-control debate

As legislators on Beacon Hill debate gun control, a consensus has yet to form on exactly what to target to cut down on gun deaths. Lawmakers have a lot of statistics and trends to consider.

In Massachusetts, the number of deaths from guns nearly doubled from 2000 to 2010, the latest year with data available, according to the state Department of Public Health. Mass murders -- those that the FBI defines as having four or more casualties -- receive front-page news nationwide, but according to a recent study, they account for less than 1 percent of all firearm homicides.

Massachusetts also has one of the strictest sets of gun laws in the country, yet it can't keep guns originating in other states from being used here.

A federal report said 13 percent of the guns in Massachusetts traced to any particular state in 2011 originated in New Hampshire, for a total of 133. Another 79 guns came from Maine, 60 from Georgia and 56 from Florida. Guns came from a total of 43 states other than Massachusetts.

Mental health became a topic after the shooting on Dec. 14 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., but it has also been a difficult subject to approach, with mental-health advocates stressing that though Newtown shooter Adam Lanza may have had Asperger's syndrome, that type of autism is not normally associated with violence.

With so much to consider, legislators are still considering a broad range of courses toward strengthening gun laws.

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Massachusetts, according to one national group that tracks gun laws, has the third-strongest set of laws, behind only California and New Jersey. Only Hawaii has a lower gun-death rate, but that state is nearby others with less stringent laws.

'Done everything right'

"We've done everything right here in Massachusetts, so I don't know if there's a (single) solution to fix the problem," said state Rep. Thomas Golden, a Lowell Democrat.

One bill, filed by state Sen. Eileen Donoghue, would increase penalties for those found in illegal possession of assault weapons, such as an AK-47.

A federal Homeland Security study released in November on mass shootings since the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado in 1999 found that semiautomatic guns are the most commonly used type. Ironically, Donoghue said, Massachusetts law does not set a minimum sentencing for assault weapons, a loophole she seeks to close with her bill, which includes a mandatory 5-year minimum.

"The punishment, once convicted, should fit the crime," the Lowell Democrat said.

Mental health's role may prove tricky, some legislators said, because of privacy concerns and such issues as how a diagnosis might affect someone's ability to be granted a gun license. Would Lanza, for example, have been denied a gun? He was not given a gun before the Newtown shootings because he did not want to wait for Connecticut's mandated 14-day waiting period, according to reports.

State Sen. James Eldridge, an Acton Democrat whose district includes Shirley, thinks the solution is likely not in mental health.

"It's important to recognize that those suffering from (ill) mental health, the vast, vast majority are nonviolent," he said. "So I don't think that's the real problem here."

Eldridge called for expanding background checks in Massachusetts and nationally, including stronger oversight of gun sales between private gun owners and monitoring those with histories of domestic violence.

A report by the group Mayors Against Illegal Guns that looked at mass shootings in recent years found that at least 40 percent of the cases involved the killing of a shooter's current or former spouse or intimate partner, and of those, at least one-third of the shooters had a prior domestic-violence charge.

State Rep. Stephen DiNatale has filed legislation that would allow police to indefinitely impound a vehicle that has a secret compartment used to store firearms or drugs. The Fitchburg Democrat said it can take police significant amounts of time to figure out how to open these compartments.

"They have these elaborate sets of steps to open up the compartment," he said. "Put the radio on a particular frequency, make a left-hand turn signal."

High score for Mass.

Stronger national gun legislation would likely benefit Massachusetts, according to studies.

While Massachusetts earned an A-minus from the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a group that promotes strict gun policies, other New England states didn't score as well. New Hampshire, the source for the most out-of-state guns in Massachusetts, was given a D, and Maine and Vermont each received an F. Rhode Island was given a C-plus, and Connecticut a B, the fourth-best in the country.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives tracks guns in each state and where they come from. Not every gun is traced, and not all firearms that are traced are used in crimes, the bureau said, but the data nonetheless indicates how freely firearms can flow from one state to the next.

Out-of-state sources for guns accounted for a greater percentage in every other New England state than Massachusetts, according to the bureau. Of the 1,020 guns traced in Massachusetts in 2011, pistols and revolvers outnumbered rifles and shotguns by more than 3-to-1.

Mass shootings rare

Mass shootings like the one in Newtown, Conn., are the events that stir debate among legislators, but only a tiny fraction of those killed by guns are part of a mass shooting. The Mayors Against Illegal Guns study found that deaths from those incidents accounted for less than 1 percent of all firearm-related homicides, according to FBI data.

Since the Columbine High School shooting in 1999, reports have paid special attention to mass shootings. In that time, two have taken place in Massachusetts: in 2000, when Michael McDermott killed seven co-workers at the Internet consulting firm where he worked in Wakefield, and in 2010, when two men were charged with killing four in a drug-related robbery in Boston, according to reports.

In the Boston shooting, the men used a 40-caliber handgun and a semiautomatic, according to the Mayors Against Illegal Guns study. One was acquitted and the other convicted.

McDermott was sentenced to life in prison in 2002. He pleaded insanity, but reports said he was enraged because part of his salary was going to be withheld to satisfy IRS claims. He used a 12-gauge shotgun and an AK-47 style semiautomatic gun in the shooting.

Debate over access to guns for the mentally ill also followed that shooting. McDermott, according to reports, was able to obtain a firearms identification card and legally buy at least three of his four guns at stores in Massachusetts despite having been hospitalized at least three times for severe depression.

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